• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.138-148
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• 2003

This study was to analyze how elementary school science textbooks explain dissolution and to examine the patterns of elementary school teachers' conceptions on dissolution and the teaching practices on dissolution of elementary school teachers. According to the result of the textbook analysis, the textbooks based on the 7th curriculum didn't explain dissolution very differently from those based on the 6th curriculum. The contents dealing with dissolution in the textbooks of 7th curriculum became difficult gradually as the year went up, but the connected organization of the contents made students learn it easily. For example, in order to learn dissolution introduced first in the 3rd year 2nd semester textbook, students would tell soluble substance in water from insoluble substance in water as they put powdered substance in water. In the 5th year 1st semester textbook students were supposed to acquire the knowledge related to dissolution through the designed activities such as comparing solubility produced by different solvents and defining a solvent, a solute, dissolution, and a solution. In addition, teachers' guide for 5th year 1st semester textbook elucidated the principle of dissolution using attraction concept that was scientific. The result of the survey on teachers showed that 90% of elementary school teachers understood the dissolution of salt in water just as millet particles' filling the space between bean particles and they responded that they demonstrated millet particles' filling the space between been particles when they taught the dissolution of salt in water. When it comes to teachers who had the right idea on dissolution as the attraction conception, understanding was one thing and teaching was another, because they often instructed dissolution as the space conception in the real teaching.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.390-403
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• 2009

We have examined the perception of teachers and students in elementary schools toward the frontier science and analyzed corresponding contents in science textbooks in Korea and the U. S. in order to promote a good guidance for the frontier science education. We prepared separate questionnaires for teachers and children, respectively, and analyzed the responses obtained from 244 teachers and 1,000 students in five elementary schools. For the analysis of how to introduce the frontier science, we investigated textbooks such as Science, Society and Practical Arts of Korean elementary school, and an American science textbook published by Scott Foresman. This study revealed that teachers are well aware of the importance of the frontier science, however, they are inactive in conducting the subject in class rooms because of their insufficient scientific knowledge and poor environment for teaching. It has been found that children had strong interest in the frontier science, however, opportunities to learn the topic are not properly provided. The frontier science m the American science textbook turned out to be more systematically introduced than that in Korean ones.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.147-160
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the elementary science curriculum and textbooks of Korea, the United States, Japan, and Singapore to know how the contents on particulate concept of matter is introduced and expressed. In Korea, particulate concept of matter was adopted as a term for 'molecules' in the 3rd through 6th curriculum, and the term for 'particles' was adopted in the 2009 revised curriculum. In the United States, NGSS adopted the term 'particle' in fifth grade. Japan presented the concept of 'particle' as a core concept of matter in the commentary, and the expressions 'particles' were being introduced in the textbooks. But it did not cover particulate nature of matter at the elementary school level in Singapore. An analysis of elementary textbooks in Korea, the United States and Japan except Singapore showed particulate expressions in 'dissolution', 'state change of water', 'gas pressure and volume', 'combustion and extinguishment' units. Korean textbook was only being introduced in 'dissolution' and 'gas pressure and volume', but in the textbooks of Japan and the United States, water was expressed as particles in 'state change of water' unit. Discussion and implication on the introduction of particulate concept to elementary science curriculum and textbooks were suggested based on the results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2019

In this study, the types of inquiry activities in the $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ grade science textbooks according to the 2015 revised science national curriculum were analyzed and compared according to grade level and science area. Science textbooks for elementary school $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ graders contain quite diverse types of inquiry activities, which are student-centered inquiry activities. There were comparatively higher proportions of inquiry types such as experiment & observation and simulation, but relatively lower of inquiry types of investigation-discourse & presentation, discussion, expression. Elementary science textbooks are expected to cultivate science key competencies for elementary school students. Considering the science area, the motion & energy, substances, earth & space, and integration areas had the most experiment & observation among activity types, while the life area had the most simulation activities. Even in some area of the 6th grade science textbook, there was little or no data interpretation, discussion, and simulation activities. In order to achieve the goal of elementary science education, science textbooks should be developed considering the revision of future elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.80-91
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• 2018

The visualization materials in science textbooks are very important in students' learning. Recent visualizations are increasingly emphasizing the importance of infographic visualizations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the visualization materials in $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ elementary science textbook focusing on infographics. Visualization materials were classified into infographic and simple illustration. Infographics were classified into 8 sub-types. Findings are as follows. First, infographics were 19.0%, and simple illustrations were 81.0% among elementary textbooks' visualization materials. The portion of infographic varied by content areas. In Biology and Earth Science area, the portions of infographic were high. Second, several types of infographics were used in elementary science textbooks. Timeline infographic were the most frequent, and emphasis infographic, concept mapping infographic, comparison infographic were used frequently. The most frequent types of infographic were different by content area. Third, infographics used more than simple illustrations in the role of concept explanation. Educational implications on science textbook's infographics were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.123-137
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• 2001

In this study, the contents of elementary school science textbooks related to 'heat and temperature' are analyzed and alternative conceptions ofi"heat and temperature" among students enrolled in grades 4, 5 and 6 are investigated. 259 students were selected from a elementary school located in urban area. The relationships between students' alternative conceptions and the content of elementary science textbooks are also examined. Students' conceptions are analyzed from their answers to a paper-and-pencil test. The typical alternative conception of "heat and temperature" held by students was follows. They think that "heat" is a material and "temperature" is value of heat amount. They can't distinguish between "heat" and "temperature". Their explanation of "heat and temperature" is focused on hot or cool sensation and other observable characteristics of a material. A textbook analysis indicated that contents on "heat and temperature" were organized without the viewpoint of particle motion theory. This may be one of the causes of students' alternative conceptions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.134-143
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to devise a new method for examining the readabilities of textbooks and to compare the readabilities of elementary school science textbooks. Third and sixth grade science textbooks were compared in terms of word, sentence, and paragraph in this study. In the word analyses, criterion suggested by Kim (2003) who classified about 238,000 words into seven categories according to their educational importances was adopted. In this study, the words from 3rd and 6th grade science textbooks were classified into four categories, and then the kinds and frequencies of words in each category were investigated. In the sentence analyses, sentences were classified either a simple sentence or a compound/complex sentence, and the ratios of each type were calculated. The average number of words in a sentence was also calculated in the sentence analyses. The ratios of conjunctions and demonstratives were examined in the paragraph analyses. The results indicated that both the kinds and frequencies of words in 3rd grade science textbook were smaller than those of 6th grade one. However, both science textbooks were similar in the distributions of words across the four categories. The ratio of simple sentences in 3rd grade science textbook was higher than that of 6th grade one, and the length of a sentence in 3rd grade science textbook was also shorter than that of 6th grade one. Both the ratios of conjunctions and demonstratives in 3rd grade science textbook were lower than those of 6th grade one.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.51-67
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to develop and applicate the elementary environmental textbook in order to solve its problem and to improve attitude related to the Asian dust. The results in this research are as follows. First, it was showed that three groups who composed of teachers, parents and students in the elementary school had recognized the serosities and problems caused by the Asian dust form TV, and that such problems was associated with increase of the desertification and the global warming. Especially the student group insist that the cause in Asian dust is due to the natural phenomena or industrialization. Second, as a result in analysis on the Asian dust through both textbooks on the 7th elementary curriculum and subsidiary textbooks, contents concerning Asian dusts was little or noting. In addition, in the subjects of Science, Society and Health for the 5th and 6th grade students in the elementary school, they were explained partially as one of the air pollutants. Third, the elementary environmental textbook on the Asian dust was developed for the 5th and 6th grade students. The textbook is composed of four contents on the material which is harmful of the human health and life in Asian dust, the special news of Asian dust, and the best answer to solve Asian dust as well as the cause and the source of Asian dust. Forth, as a result in classes using the environmental textbook developed by four themes about the Asian dust, its application is meaningful in the level of p value in the view of knowledge, awareness and attitude of the experiment group. They was more improved in 37%, 14%, and 15%, respectively, than the comparative group. In conclusion, the environmental textbook related to Asian dust will play an important role in useful tool to understand the right knowledge, awareness, and attitude which makes an effort on its effective management in the elementary school.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.475-488
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary students' difficulties when they read the illustrations on scientific textbook. 5 illustrations were selected on basis that they had some of the textual/graphical features. The data were collected from open-ended questionnaires and follow-up interviews. To investigate difficulties of reading illustrations, 100 sixth grade students participated in this study and interviews were taken to 9 volunteers among those participants. The results showed that many students had difficulties in the integration of verbal representation and realistic image representation on the illustration, therefore they often misunderstood the meaning of illustration. These results gave several recommendations when we used illustrations as educational materials. Teachers would be better to guide that students could understand illustrations with the integration of the reading of one or more representations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how elementary school student understands or students understand the illustrations on the phase change of the Moon in science textbook and to find out how textbook illustration helps students form the conception of the phase change of the Moon. To identify this purpose, we selected illustrations on the phase change of the Moon in the science textbook revised in 2007 and 2009 revised science textbook. For this study we selected and interviewed 20 students in the fifth grade. We integrated all data collected through interviews and created a transcription and a protocol and then, confirmed scientific conceptions related to the phase change of the Moon in students' illustration reading. The result are as followings: First, students read more scientific conceptions related to the phase change of the Moon in illustration of the 2009 revised science textbook which is presented with the universal observer's view point and the earth observer's view point. Second, students who find meaning in the various elements of the illustration and interpret with the integration of the various elements, get a lot of relevant information from illustration. All students have no differences recognizing the elements presented in illustration. But there are differences of contents of illustration reading depending on how students interpret the illustrations with integration of the various elements and if students cannot figure out the four scientific concepts needed to understand the phase change of the Moon, they ignore the information provided by illustration or analysis in their own way according to information provided by illustration. So misconception appears in this process.